With Heartfelt Sympathy

Hello and welcome! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did! Even though things have been different this year, it is crucial to find the good! I hadn't planned on my first post after Christmas to be a sympathy post, but unfortunately, life has a way of throwing curveballs, as we all know! There was a death in the neighborhood and my sympathy card stash was down to one. The one that was left wasn't the "one" that I wanted to send, so I sat down to create something new. Since I had everything out, I decided to create 3 to have more on hand.

If it wasn't so close to Christmas, I probably would have switched up the colors for each card. I was in a hurry, so it was easier just to do 3 at a time without changing any ink pads. To begin, I stenciled 3 panels with the fabulous Simple Plaid Stencil. I used Slumber Ink for stencil 1 and then used Sapphire Ink for stencil 2. Once the stenciling was done for each of the three panels, I die cut them with my favorite Essentials: Diagonal Stitched Rectangles to give the edge a finished detail.

I've been having so much fun using the different sizes of these frames, but for today's card, I used the smallest  size from the Essentials: Scalloped Stitched Rectangles to frame the pretty flowers.

It's no secret how much I love the Modern Layered Floral Stamp Set and have used it on all sorts of different types of cards. I really like it for Sympathy cards, like I've created today. I chose to stamp the leaves in both Olive and Fresh Pear ink and the flowers are stamped in Coral Reef and Passion Fruit, with just a touch of glitter here and there.

I've been dying to use this particular sympathy sentiment from the Feathered Friends 4 Mini Stamp Set. I heat embossed it in gold onto a strip of vellum and wrapped it around the stenciled panel.

I added bows from the Partial Cut Bouqet and a Bow Die Collection to each of the three cards. The thing I like about this particular bow is that if it gets smashed flat in the mailing process, it still looks nice! ha ha! One tip is to add a foam square inside the loops so when it gets pressure added, it has that layer of foam.

Each of the stenciled panels is added to a top folding A2 card base using foam squares. I added a sentiment to the inside as well, but didn't take any photos. I'm so sad to have to need a sympathy card during this time of year. I can't imagine the grief the family must be feeling right now! Life will never be the same for them and Christmas will probably always have that sadness and gloom associated with it! That just breaks my heart! My prayer for them will be that the reminder of the Savior's birth will always be a comfort to them! Thanks for fluttering by!